Charles Schwab Drops 6% as Meta's Muse Stokes AI Brokerage Disruption Fears

3 articles · Updated · CNBC · Sep 23

Schwab shares fell 6% Tuesday to their lowest since early July, extending losses to more than 8% since Meta unveiled Muse, while Robinhood climbed to another year-to-date high.
Muse says it will not trade or give financial advice, but its portfolio-tracking and goal-analysis features sharpened fears that AI could replace fee-collecting middlemen in brokerage and wealth management.
LPL Financial dropped 7%, Raymond James lost 3.5%, Interactive Brokers slipped 1%, and the financials ETF XLF fell 2%, showing the selloff spread beyond Schwab.
Options trading pointed to a deeper divide: Schwab volume ran at more than five times normal with nearly twice as many puts as calls, while over 80% of Robinhood's $95 million in premium was tied to calls.
The reaction fits a broader shift toward AI-led retail investing: Robinhood already launched trading agents in May, while Schwab has been racing to add Anthropic and in-house AI tools to defend its franchise.